Lieberman applauds decision to extend mission in Afghanistan

Canada and the United States must remain strong and stand together against global threats such as Iran, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman told a forum on governance and security Monday night.

Speaking at a forum on democracy and global governance put on by Kollel of Ottawa, a centre for Judaic Studies, Lieberman reminded the crowd that the prosperity and security of Canada and the United States are mutually reinforcing, but that, “In order to stay safe, we need to stay engaged beyond our borders.”

That, Lieberman said, is why the joint Canadian-U.S. commitment in Afghanistan has been so important. He then expressed gratitude for the Canadian government’s recent decision to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan after 2011.

Lieberman also reminded the crowd of the “fanatical, extremist, expansionist regime in Tehran,” and stated that, “we cannot allow Iran to go nuclear.” Diplomatic efforts to that end are fine but, he said, other means must be available, “including military, if we must.”

In his introductory remarks, Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, Jason Kenney, repeated large portions of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent speech on global anti-Semitism, which he delivered to international parliamentarians earlier this month in Ottawa.

On Monday night, Kenney called it Harper’s “single most important and articulate speech of his Premiership over the last five years.”

The new anti-Semitism, Harper had warned, harnesses “disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.”